Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving suffered a fractured left kneecap in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors and will miss the remainder of the postseason.

He will have surgery in the coming days at Cleveland Clinic by the team’s physician, Dr. Richard Parker. His recovery time is estimated around three to four months.

An MRI on Friday performed at Stanford Sports Medicine Clinic revealed the fracture. This is a catastrophic blow for Irving and the Cavaliers.

Cleveland.com

That’s it… that’s a wrap… give the Warriors the trophy right now.  Schedule the parade for tomorrow.

While everyone was fawning over LeBron’s 44, the real reason the Cavs kept Game 1 close was because of Tristan Thompson’s rebounding and Kyrie Irving’s stellar play.  Now without Irving, there’s no secondary guy that can really get the rest of his team going. Matthew Dellavedova can hit some shots, but…. wait for this analysis here…. he can’t do what Kyrie Irving does for the rest of his teammates.

So that means the Warriors can really go all out with the “single cover LeBron” strategy because they won’t have to worry about a secondary star making a bunch of great plays. It’s LeBron on an island and everyone else trying to figure out how to get their shots.

And just a side note… for a guy who’s not known for his defense, Irving made a few pretty good defensive plays against Steph Curry in that game. Not a lot of people are talking about that (and it’s not like he turned into Kawhi Leonard or something), but he stepped up on the defensive end. That’s going to be missed tomorrow night.

Let LeBron take another 38 shots. Take 48… 58… it doesn’t matter. As long as he’s kept to about 5 assists, the Warriors will be in a great spot to keep on winning. My Warriors in 6 might have to be revised to Warriors in 5….. or maybe even 4.

And Finally….

…. Do you suffer from Celtics Off Season Syndrome?

The rest of the links

CSNNE: Can Celtics turn up 2nd round gem like Green?  |  ESPN Boston: Draft notebook: Accentuating the positives  |  CBS Sports: Pierce: I still feel like I can play this game  |  MassLive: Mock roundup: Sam Dekker, Christian Wood among players projected to Celtics